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oxnard_montalvo's review
3.0
Not one of his best works; slightly cumbersome and forced at times. Nonsense at other times. But when he gets it right, he's right. When he's profound he's beautiful. Something to slide into. Gibran has one of those rare talents of speaking directly of what you've felt but never knew how to articulate and he does so gently, with understanding that he and the reader are on equal terms.
sidharthvardhan's review
5.0
“We often sing lullabyes to our children that we ourselves may sleep.”
This is the best of Kahlil Gibran I have rad this far. The aphorisms and parables are simply beautiful. It is difficult to chose a sample.
“A pearl is a temple built around a grain of sand.
What longing built our bodies and around what grains?”
Only once I have been made mute. It was when a man asked me, “Who are you?” Yes, you read this quote on Jiran’s profile page.
“The voice of life in me cannot reach the ear of life in you; but let us talk that we may not be lonely.”
“Every great man I have known has something small in his make-up; and it was that small something which prevented inactivity or madness or suicide.”
“A traveler am I and a navigator, and everyday I discover a new region within my soul.”
“Rememberance is a form of meeting."
"The flowers of spring are winter’s dreams related at the breakfast table of the angels."
"You can forget the one with whom you have laughed, but never the one with whom you have wept."
"Should one tell a lie which does not hurt you nor anyone else, why not say in your heart that the house of his facts is too small for his fancies, and he had to leave it for larger space?"
sewzii's review
5.0
Now I know that I am the sphere, and all life in rhythmic fragments moves within me.
bookwomble's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
5.0
sonialusiveira's review
3.0
I was obsessed with Kahlil Gibran in my teen years so I added most his books to my tbr since I read only his translated works in Indonesian. Teenage me would have loved this much more than I do now. Came across some aphorisms that really speak to me but since this is a classic, many are too familiar already and feels too cliché.
gamerboy09pc's review
4.0
My favorites:
Remembrance is a form of meeting.
One may not reach the dawn save by the path of the night.
My house says to me, “Do not leave me, for here dwells your past.”
And the road says to me, “Come and follow me, for I am your future.”
And I say to both my house and the road, “I have no past, nor have I a future. If I stay here, there is a going in my staying; and if I go there is a staying in my going. Only love and death will change all things.”
Strange, the desire for certain pleasures is a part of my pain.
I AM IGNORANT of absolute truth. But I am humble before my ignorance
and therein lies my honor and my reward.
There is a space between man’s imagination and man’s attainment that may
only be traversed by his longing.
The significance of man is not in what he attains, but rather in what he longs to attain.
When one is drunk with a vision, he deems his faint expression of it the very
wine. You drink wine that you may be intoxicated; and I drink that it may sober me from that other wine.
The reality of the other person is not in what he reveals to you, but in what he cannot reveal to you. Therefore, if you would understand him, listen not to what he says but rather to what he does not say.
Half of what I say is meaningless; but I say it so that the other half may reach you.
The real in us is silent; the acquired is talkative.
Every seed is a longing.
It takes two of us to discover truth: one to utter it and one to understand it.
Love that does not renew itself every day becomes a habit and in turn a
slavery.
Oftentimes I have hated in self-defense; but if I were stronger I would not
have used such a weapon.
In truth we talk only to ourselves, but sometimes we talk loud enough that
others may hear us.
Tolerance is love sick with the sickness of haughtiness.
I have learned silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet strange, I am ungrateful to these teachers.
When either your joy or your sorrow becomes great the world becomes small.
It is indeed misery if I stretch an empty hand to men and receive nothing; but it is hopelessness if I stretch a full hand and find none to receive.
You may have heard of the Blessed Mountain.
It is the highest mountain in our world.
Should you reach the summit you would have only one desire, and that to
descend and be with those who dwell in the deepest valley.
That is why it is called the Blessed Mountain.
Spoiler
Remembrance is a form of meeting.
One may not reach the dawn save by the path of the night.
My house says to me, “Do not leave me, for here dwells your past.”
And the road says to me, “Come and follow me, for I am your future.”
And I say to both my house and the road, “I have no past, nor have I a future. If I stay here, there is a going in my staying; and if I go there is a staying in my going. Only love and death will change all things.”
Strange, the desire for certain pleasures is a part of my pain.
I AM IGNORANT of absolute truth. But I am humble before my ignorance
and therein lies my honor and my reward.
There is a space between man’s imagination and man’s attainment that may
only be traversed by his longing.
The significance of man is not in what he attains, but rather in what he longs to attain.
When one is drunk with a vision, he deems his faint expression of it the very
wine. You drink wine that you may be intoxicated; and I drink that it may sober me from that other wine.
The reality of the other person is not in what he reveals to you, but in what he cannot reveal to you. Therefore, if you would understand him, listen not to what he says but rather to what he does not say.
Half of what I say is meaningless; but I say it so that the other half may reach you.
The real in us is silent; the acquired is talkative.
Every seed is a longing.
It takes two of us to discover truth: one to utter it and one to understand it.
Love that does not renew itself every day becomes a habit and in turn a
slavery.
Oftentimes I have hated in self-defense; but if I were stronger I would not
have used such a weapon.
In truth we talk only to ourselves, but sometimes we talk loud enough that
others may hear us.
Tolerance is love sick with the sickness of haughtiness.
I have learned silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet strange, I am ungrateful to these teachers.
When either your joy or your sorrow becomes great the world becomes small.
It is indeed misery if I stretch an empty hand to men and receive nothing; but it is hopelessness if I stretch a full hand and find none to receive.
You may have heard of the Blessed Mountain.
It is the highest mountain in our world.
Should you reach the summit you would have only one desire, and that to
descend and be with those who dwell in the deepest valley.
That is why it is called the Blessed Mountain.